I don't know the first time I heard it. I'm pretty sure it was in a stump speech during the 2004 Presidential campaign. It was the Two Americas speech of John Edwards. It was the first time in my life that I was moved by a contemporary political speech.
And we have much work to do, because the truth is, we still live in a country where there are two different Americas...
... one, for all of those people who have lived the American dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans, everybody else who struggle to make ends meet every single day. It doesn't have to be that way.
I was hooked. I had my eyes opened to those around me who were less fortunate. For the first time ever, I could vote for someone who espoused things that really resonated with me.
And in 2007, for the first time ever, I donated my own money and my own time to a political campaign. A campaign that shown a bright light on the darkness that was the government's response to an American city devastated by Katrina. A campaign that continued to remind us that we are better than what we have become.
The words accurately portrayed our country like no other. No one had taken up the causes of poverty and social justice in such a high profile manner since Bobby Kennedy. No one rallied the progressive movement in such a high profile way in 40 years.
But today, people aren't talking about those that have no food, no job, no place to stay. People aren't talking about children being turned away from emergency rooms because their parents have no health insurance. No, today people are talking about what a fraud John Edwards is. They are talking about how another politician lied, so full of himself that he hoped it wouldn't come out and ruin his political career.
His actions have soiled the public effort to mobilize people to stand up for those that have no voice, or whose voices are ignored. Today, the movement to end poverty has been made a laughingstock - a movement that is more important than any single person. It has just been made harder for the next person who takes up the mantle of poverty and social justice in a high profile manner. Because everyone will think in the back of their minds about the lofty words of two Americas and then they'll remember that first and foremost, they were uttered by just another one of those lousy politicians that everyone hates.
And so, let this be a reminder that we shouldn't put our faith in people, but in ideals. So my disappointment is not with the person who opened my eyes to the movement. The words of Two Americas belong to a man, a fallible man. But the ideals of Two Americas belong to all of us who want "to make gentle the life of this world". And so today my disappointment is not with John Edwards, but for those that choose to take up the cause of poverty. Because today, that job has been made just a little more difficult by the selfish, short-sighted actions of one of the movements most articulate advocates.